The 12th Annual European Spas Association Conference in Pärnu, Estonia
For 5 days the Estonian city of Pärnu was transformed into the capital of the European spa industry. From 9th to 13th May the conference gave spa professionals from 19 countries an opportunity to share their experiences and to make a plan for the future direction of the European spas. Along with the conference the Baltic Sea Spas hosted on 11th May a seminar on the Theme "The Baltic Spa as a Scientific Discipline Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow."
One of the main points of the conference was the discussion with the goal of preventing unfair competition of facilities providing low quality and unprofessional services. I asked the general secretary of the European Spas Association (ESPA), Joachim Lieber, and the reasons for these measures: “In the meantime there are facilities designated as spas or spa hotels in many cities, which in reality do not offer any health care services whatsoever, but only wellness and beautician services. We need to protect our members and their care givers against facilities like those. A true spa according to European meaning should be a health care centres with a wide range of treatment services and medical competence.”
There has been a development since the congress 2006 held in Portugal. It is satisfying that an increasing number of facilities are becoming involved in the VisitEuropeanSpas.com project. We asked the manager of the project, Vít Pechanec, about the current status of the web site: "The web site has been launched in English and German versions. It represents 25 member countries – spa destinations with a total number of 838 spa sites. Amongs other thibgs the web site contains 1,235 photographs, 8 virtual tours, and 53 presentations. In March 2007 the English version recorded 3,100 visits and a total of 11,000 viewed pages; the German version had over 3,800 visits. For those advertising on the web site it is definitely interesting that 26% of the visits to the English version are from the United States.”
The ESPA marketing commission decided that Spanish and Russian versions should be added in the near future.
Another successful project implemented by ESPA is the introduction of the health care and spas certification system Europespa.med and Europespa.wellbeing. Currently 21 facilities in total from 8 countries have already been certified, 75% of which earned the seal of quality on their first attempt after over 400 criteria had been inspected; the remaining 25% were forced to improve services in order to achieve this goal. Tour operators such as Euromed and Medikur and health insurance companies Taunus BKK and Techniker Krankenkasse are also promoting the seal of quality Europespa.
Another activity of the ESPA is lobbying at European Union institutions. For example, in January 2007 the organization took position on cross border health care services and intervened to ensure that rehabilitation and health care prevention services in the EU would be included in the so-called catalogue of health care services.
On the general assembly new associations became members of ESPA. The memberships of ILAM – Leading Leisure in Ireland and the Bulgarian Union of Balneology and Spa Tourism (BUBSPA) were approved.
Besides the approval of new members the general ansembly decided unanimously that the cooperation of ESPA with the international ISO working group TC 228 / WG2 is indispensable to prevent the further missuse of terms „SPA“ and „ SPA-services“.
The general ansembly supported unanimously the ESPA portal „ VisitEuropeanSpas“, with a large majority voted for ESPA Quality criteria and quality seal „eurpespa.med“ and europespa.wellbeing“ and is looking forward to strenghten the cooperation with International Society of Medical Health (ISMH).
As is the case every year conference delegates and guests were treated to a rich accompanying programme, this time involving the local culture, folklore, and customs of Estonia and its regions.
Next year’s 13th annual congress 2008 will be held in May at the Yverdon-les-Bains spa resort in western part of Switzerland.
One of the main points of the conference was the discussion with the goal of preventing unfair competition of facilities providing low quality and unprofessional services. I asked the general secretary of the European Spas Association (ESPA), Joachim Lieber, and the reasons for these measures: “In the meantime there are facilities designated as spas or spa hotels in many cities, which in reality do not offer any health care services whatsoever, but only wellness and beautician services. We need to protect our members and their care givers against facilities like those. A true spa according to European meaning should be a health care centres with a wide range of treatment services and medical competence.”
There has been a development since the congress 2006 held in Portugal. It is satisfying that an increasing number of facilities are becoming involved in the VisitEuropeanSpas.com project. We asked the manager of the project, Vít Pechanec, about the current status of the web site: "The web site has been launched in English and German versions. It represents 25 member countries – spa destinations with a total number of 838 spa sites. Amongs other thibgs the web site contains 1,235 photographs, 8 virtual tours, and 53 presentations. In March 2007 the English version recorded 3,100 visits and a total of 11,000 viewed pages; the German version had over 3,800 visits. For those advertising on the web site it is definitely interesting that 26% of the visits to the English version are from the United States.”
The ESPA marketing commission decided that Spanish and Russian versions should be added in the near future.
Another successful project implemented by ESPA is the introduction of the health care and spas certification system Europespa.med and Europespa.wellbeing. Currently 21 facilities in total from 8 countries have already been certified, 75% of which earned the seal of quality on their first attempt after over 400 criteria had been inspected; the remaining 25% were forced to improve services in order to achieve this goal. Tour operators such as Euromed and Medikur and health insurance companies Taunus BKK and Techniker Krankenkasse are also promoting the seal of quality Europespa.
Another activity of the ESPA is lobbying at European Union institutions. For example, in January 2007 the organization took position on cross border health care services and intervened to ensure that rehabilitation and health care prevention services in the EU would be included in the so-called catalogue of health care services.
On the general assembly new associations became members of ESPA. The memberships of ILAM – Leading Leisure in Ireland and the Bulgarian Union of Balneology and Spa Tourism (BUBSPA) were approved.
Besides the approval of new members the general ansembly decided unanimously that the cooperation of ESPA with the international ISO working group TC 228 / WG2 is indispensable to prevent the further missuse of terms „SPA“ and „ SPA-services“.
The general ansembly supported unanimously the ESPA portal „ VisitEuropeanSpas“, with a large majority voted for ESPA Quality criteria and quality seal „eurpespa.med“ and europespa.wellbeing“ and is looking forward to strenghten the cooperation with International Society of Medical Health (ISMH).
As is the case every year conference delegates and guests were treated to a rich accompanying programme, this time involving the local culture, folklore, and customs of Estonia and its regions.
Next year’s 13th annual congress 2008 will be held in May at the Yverdon-les-Bains spa resort in western part of Switzerland.
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Last modified: December 30, 2007
Last modified: December 30, 2007
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